D-Link DXE-820T User manual

DXE-820T
Dual Port 10GBASE-T RJ-45 PCI Express Adapter
Manual
V1.00

D-Link DXE-820T User Manual
Index
1. Introduction ...........................................................................................................7
1.1. Functionality and Features ....................................................................7
1.1.1. Functional Description...................................................................7
1.1.2. Features..........................................................................................7
2. System Requirements ............................................................................................9
2.1. Hardware Requirements ........................................................................9
2.2. Operating System Requirements ...........................................................9
2.2.1. Microsoft Windows........................................................................9
2.2.2. Linux...............................................................................................9
2.2.3. VMware ESX ...................................................................................9
2.3. Connecting the Network Cables ............................................................9
3. Installing Management Applications ...................................................................11
3.1. Installing the Broadcom Advanced Control Suite and Related
Management Applications...................................................................................12
3.1.1. Installing on a Windows System ..................................................12
3.1.2. Installing on a Linux System .........................................................14
3.1.3. Managing Management Applications (Windows) .......................14
4. Advanced Teaming Concepts ...............................................................................16
4.1. Network Addressing.............................................................................16
4.2. Teaming and Network Addresses.........................................................17
4.3. Description of Teaming Types ..............................................................17
4.3.1. Smart Load Balancing and Failover..............................................18
4.3.2. Generic Trunking..........................................................................20
4.3.3. Link Aggregation (IEEE 802.3ad LACP) .........................................20
4.3.4. SLB (Auto-Fallback Disable)..........................................................21
4.4. Teaming and Other Advanced Networking Properties........................21
4.4.1. IEEE 802.1p QoS Tagging..............................................................22
4.4.2. Jumbo Frames..............................................................................22
4.4.3. IEEE 802.1Q VLANs.......................................................................22
4.4.4. Preboot Execution Environment ..................................................23
5. NIC Partitioning....................................................................................................24
5.1. Supported Operating Systems for NIC Partitioning .............................24
5.2. Configuring for NIC Partitioning...........................................................24
6. Using Broadcom Advanced Control Suite 4 .........................................................27
6.1. Starting Broadcom Advanced Control Suite.........................................27

D-Link DXE-820T User Manual
6.2. BACS Interface......................................................................................27
6.2.1. Explorer View Pane ......................................................................27
6.2.2. Context View Selector..................................................................28
6.2.3. Context View Pane .......................................................................28
6.2.4. Menu Bar......................................................................................29
6.2.5. Description Pane ..........................................................................30
6.3. Configuring Preferences in Windows...................................................30
6.4. Connecting to a Host............................................................................. 31
6.5. Managing the Host...............................................................................31
6.5.1. Information Tab: Host Information ..............................................31
6.5.2. Information Tab: iSCSI Initiator ....................................................32
6.5.3. Configuration Tab: System Management.....................................32
6.6. Managing the Network Adapter ..........................................................32
6.6.1. Viewing Adapter Information ......................................................32
6.6.2. Viewing Resource Information.....................................................32
6.6.3. Viewing Hardware Information....................................................34
6.6.4. Configuring Adapter Parameters .................................................34
6.6.5. Configure Multi-function Parameters Using the Wizard .............34
6.6.6. Hardware and Resource Configuration Wizard: Introduction .....35
6.6.7. Hardware and Resource Configuration Wizard: Port Configuration
35
6.6.8. Hardware and Resource Configuration Wizard: Configure
Resources .....................................................................................................35
6.6.9. Hardware and Resource Configuration Wizard: Commit and Finish
36
6.7. Managing Ethernet Controller (Port)...................................................36
6.7.1. Viewing Port Level Information ...................................................36
6.7.2. Viewing Vital Signs .......................................................................37
6.7.3. Viewing NIC Partitioning Information ..........................................38
6.7.4. Testing the Network.....................................................................40
6.7.5. Running Diagnostic Tests in Windows .........................................41
6.8. Analyzing Cables in Windows ..............................................................43
6.9. Managing the LAN Device....................................................................45
6.9.1. Viewing NDIS Information............................................................45
6.9.2. Configuring the NDIS Driver.........................................................46
6.10. Viewing Resource Information.............................................................53
6.10.1. Configuring System Settings ........................................................53
6.10.2. Viewing Statistics .........................................................................53

D-Link DXE-820T User Manual
6.10.3. Viewing Resource Reservations ...................................................57
6.10.4. Configuring the IP Address for iSCSI Offload ...............................57
6.11. Configuring Teaming ............................................................................58
6.11.1. Team Types...................................................................................59
6.11.2. Standby Team Member and Auto-Fallback Disable Mode ..........60
6.11.3. LiveLink.........................................................................................60
6.11.4. Using the Broadcom Teaming Wizard..........................................60
6.11.5. Using Expert Mode.......................................................................70
6.11.6. Viewing BASP Statistics ................................................................76
6.12. Configuring With the Command Line Interface Utility ........................77
6.12.1. Supported Operating Systems .....................................................77
6.12.2. Installation ...................................................................................77
6.13. Troubleshooting BACS..........................................................................77
7. User Diagnostics in DOS: D-Link DXE-820T Network Adapter User Guide ..........79
7.1. Introduction .........................................................................................79
7.2. System Requirements ..........................................................................79
7.3. Performing Diagnostics ........................................................................79
7.4. Diagnostic Test Descriptions ................................................................82
8. Specifications: D-Link DXE-820T Network Adapter User Guide...........................86
8.1. 10/100/1000BASE-T and 10GBASE-T Cable Specifications..................86
8.2. Interface Specifications........................................................................86
9. Troubleshooting: D-Link DXE-820T Network Adapter User Guide ......................87
9.1. Hardware Diagnostics ..........................................................................87
9.2. Checking Port LEDs...............................................................................87
9.3. Troubleshooting Checklist....................................................................87
9.4. Checking if Current Drivers are Loaded ...............................................88
9.4.1. Windows ......................................................................................88
9.4.2. Linux.............................................................................................88
9.5. Running a Cable Length Test ................................................................89
9.6. Testing Network Connectivity ..............................................................89
9.6.1. Windows ......................................................................................89
9.6.2. Linux.............................................................................................89
9.7. Microsoft Virtualization with Hyper-V.................................................90
9.7.1. Single Network Adapter...............................................................90
9.7.2. Teamed Network Adapters ..........................................................91
9.8. Removing the Device Drivers ...............................................................93
9.9. Upgrading Windows Operating Systems..............................................94
9.10. Broadcom Boot Agent..........................................................................94

D-Link DXE-820T User Manual
9.11. Broadcom Advanced Server Program (BASP) ......................................94
9.12. Linux.....................................................................................................96
9.13. NPAR.....................................................................................................96
9.14. Miscellaneous ......................................................................................97

D-Link DXE-820T User Manual
Information in this document is subject to change without notice.
© 2013 D-Link Corporation. All rights reserved.
This document is protected by copyright and is distributed under licenses restricting
its use, copying, distribution, and decompilation. No part of this document may be
reproduced in any form by any means without prior written authorization of
Broadcom Corporation. Documentation is provided as is without warranty of any
kind, either express or implied, including any kind of implied or express warranty of
non-infringement or the implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a
particular purpose.
Broadcom Corporation reserves the right to make changes without further notice to
any products or data herein to improve reliability, function, or design. Information
furnished by Broadcom Corporation is believed to be accurate and reliable. However,
Broadcom Corporation does not assume any liability arising out of the application or
use of this information, nor the application or use of any product or circuit described
herein, neither does it convey any license under its patent rights or the rights of
others.
Broadcom, the pulse logo, Connecting everything, the Connecting everything logo,
NetXtreme, Ethernet@Wirespeed, LiveLink, and Smart Load Balancing are among the
trademarks of Broadcom Corporation and/or its affiliates in the United States, certain
other countries, and/or the EU. Microsoft and Windows are trademarks of Microsoft
Corporation. Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds. Intel is a trademark of Intel
Corporation. Magic Packet is a trademark of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Red Hat is
a trademark of Red Hat, Inc. PCI Express is a trademark of PCI-SIG. Any other
trademarks or trade names mentioned are the property of their respective owners.

D-Link DXE-820T User Manual
1. Introduction
Thank you for choosing the D-Link DXE-820T, the value leader among 10 Gigabit
Ethernet adapters for PCI Express Bus personal computers. The D-Link DXE-820T PCI
Express 10 Gigabit Ethernet Adapter is a high performance adapter designed for the
high-speed PCI Express Bus Architecture. The PCI Express 10 Gigabit Ethernet
Adapter offers increased bandwidth, reliability, and more functionality than standard
PCI network cards. It is specifically designed to allow throughput at rates up to 40
Gbps, thus eliminating the bottleneck that exists with current 32 and 64 bit PCI bus
architecture
1.1. Functionality and Features
1.1.1. Functional Description
DXE-820T is a 10 GbE converged network interface controller (C-NIC) that can
simultaneously perform accelerated data networking and storage networking on a
standard Ethernet network. The C-NIC offers acceleration for popular protocols used
in the data center, such as:
Internet Small Computer Systems Interface (iSCSI) offload for accelerating network
storage access featuring centralized boot functionality (iSCSI boot).
Enterprise networks that use multiple protocols and multiple network fabrics, benefit
from the C-NICs ability to combine data communications, storage, and clustering
over a single Ethernet fabric by boosting server CPU processing performance and
memory utilization while alleviating I/O bottlenecks.
Using the Broadcom teaming software, you can split your network into virtual LANs
(VLANs) as well as group multiple network adapters together into teams to provide
network load balancing and fault tolerance functionality. See Configuring Teaming
and Broadcom Gigabit Ethernet Teaming Services for detailed information about
teaming. See Virtual LANs, for a description of VLANs. See Configuring Teaming for
instructions on configuring teaming and creating VLANs on Windows operating
systems
1.1.2. Features
The following is a list of DXE-820T features.
NIC Partitioning
Other performance features
TCP, IP, UDP checksum

D-Link DXE-820T User Manual
TCP segmentation
Adaptive interrupts
Receive Side Scaling (RSS)
Manageability
Statistics for SNMP MIB II, Ethernet-like MIB, and Ethernet MIB (IEEE Std 802.3z,
Clause 30)
SMBus controller
IPMI support
Advanced network features
Jumbo frames (up to 9 KB). The OS and the link partner must support jumbo
frames.
Virtual LANs
IEEE Std 802.3ad Teaming
Smart Load Balancing Teaming
Flow Control (IEEE Std 802.3x)
LiveLink™ (supported in both the 32-bit and 64-bit Windows operating
systems)
Logical Link Control (IEEE Std 802.2)
Layer-2 Priority Encoding (IEEE Std 802.1p)
High-speed on-chip RISC processor
Up to 3 classes of service (CoS)
Integrated 96 KB frame buffer memory
Quality of Service (QoS)
Support for multicast addresses via 256 bits hashing hardware function
JTAG support
PCI Power Management Interface (v1.1)
64-bit BAR support
iSCSI Boot support
Virtualization
Microsoft
VMware

D-Link DXE-820T User Manual
2. System Requirements
2.1. Hardware Requirements
IA32- or EMT64-based computer that meets operating system requirements
One open PCI Express slot. Depending on the PCI Express support on your adapter,
the slot may be of type PCI Express 1.0a x1, PCI Express 1.0a x4, or PCI Express
Gen2 x8.
128-MB RAM (minimum)
2.2. Operating System Requirements
2.2.1. Microsoft Windows
One of the following versions of Microsoft Windows:
Windows Server 2008 family
Windows Server 2008 R2 family
Windows Server 2012 family
2.2.2. Linux
Although the adapter driver should work with many Linux kernel versions and
distributions, it has only been tested on 2.4x kernels (starting from 2.4.24) and 2.6.x
kernels. The driver may not compile on kernels older than 2.4.24. Testing is
concentrated on i386 and x86_64 architectures. Only limited testing has been done
on other architectures. Minor changes to some source files and Makefile may be
needed on some kernels.
Note: Support for the 2.4.21 kernels is provided in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3.
2.2.3. VMware ESX
VMware ESX
VMware ESX 3.5
VMware ESX 4.0
VMware ESX 4.1
VMware ESXi 5.0
VMware ESXi 5.1
2.3. Connecting the Network Cables
Note:DXE-820T supports Automatic MDI Crossover (MDIX), which eliminates the
need for crossover cables when connecting machines back-to-back. A
straight-through Category 5 cable allows the machines to communicate when

D-Link DXE-820T User Manual
connected directly together.
1. Select an appropriate cable. Table 1 lists the copper cable requirements for
connecting to 10/100/1000BASE-T and 10GBASE-T ports:
Table 1:
10/100/1000BASE-T and 10GBASE-T Cable Specifications
Port Type Connector Media Maximum
Distance
10BASE-T RJ-45
Category 3, 4, or 5
unshielded twisted pairs
(UTP)
100m (328 ft.)
100/1000BASE-T
1
RJ-45 Category 5
2
UTP 100m (328 ft.)
10GBASE-T RJ-45 Category 6
3
UTP
Category 6A3UTP
50m (164 ft.)
100m (328 ft.)
1: 1000BASE-
T signaling requires four twisted pairs of Category 5 balanced cabling, as
specified in ISO/IEC 11801:2002 and ANSI/EIA/TIA-568-B.
2:
Category 5 is the minimum requirement. Category 5e and Category 6 are fully
supported.
3: 10GBASE-
T signaling requires four twisted pairs of Category 6 or Category 6A
(augmented Category 6) balanced cabling, as specified in ISO/IEC 11801:2002 and
ANSI/TIA/EIA-568-B.
2. Connect one end of the cable to the RJ-45 connector on the adapter.
3. Connect the other end of the cable to an RJ-45 Ethernet network port.

D-Link DXE-820T User Manual
3. Installing Management Applications
The Broadcom Advanced Control Suite version 4 (BACS4) is a management
application for configuring the DXE-820T, also known as Converge Network Adapters
(CNAs). BACS4 software operates on Windows and Linux server and client operating
systems. This chapter describes how to install the BACS4 management application.
There are two main components of the BACS4 utility: the provider component and
the client software.
A provider is installed on a server, or "managed host", that contains one or more
CNAs. The provider collects information on the CNAs and makes it available for
retrieval from a management PC on which the client software is installed. The client
software enables viewing information from the providers and configuring the CNAs.
The BACS client software includes a graphical user interface (GUI) and a command
line interface (CLI).

D-Link DXE-820T User Manual
3.1. Installing the Broadcom Advanced Control Suite and Related
Management Applications
3.1.1. Installing on a Windows System
The Broadcom Advanced Control Suite (BACS) software and related management
applications can be installed from the installation CD or by using the silent install
option.
The following are installed when running the installer:
Control Suite. Broadcom Advanced Control Suite (BACS). If selected, a GUI and a
CLI client will be installed.
B A S P. Broadcom Advanced Server Program. This is a Broadcom intermediate NDIS
driver to configure VLAN, Team, Load Balancing etc.
SN MP. The Simple Network Management Protocol subagent. This feature allows
the SNMP manager to monitor the Broadcom network adapters.
CIM Provider. Common Information Model provider. This component presents the
network adapter information to WMI based management applications. Select this
component on a host which has D-Link DXE-820T adapter installed and which you
want to manage using the GUI client.
Notes:
Ensure that the Broadcom network adapter(s) is physically installed in the system
before installing BACS.
Before you begin the installation, close all applications, windows, or dialog boxes.
BASP is not available on Windows Small Business Server (SBS) 2008.
Using the Installer
To install the management applications:
1. Insert the installation CD into the CD or DVD drive.
2. On the installation CD, open the MgmtApps folder, select IA32 or x64, and then
double-click Setup.exe to open the InstallShield Wizard.
3. Click Next to continue.
4. After you review the license agreement, click the box to accept the terms in the
license agreement and then click Next to continue.
5. Select the features you want installed.
6. Click Next.
7. Click Install.
8. Click Finish to close the wizard.
9. After successful installation, you can start the GUI from Windows Start menu.

D-Link DXE-820T User Manual
Using Silent Installation
Notes:
All commands are case sensitive.
User must "Run as Administrator" for Vista when using "msiexec" for "silent"
install/uninstall(s).
For detailed instructions and information about unattended installs, refer to the
Silent.txt file in the MgmtApps folder.
To perform a silent install (or upgrade) from within the installer source folder, type
the following:
setup /s /v/qn
If performing a silent upgrade, your system may reboot automatically. To suppress
the reboot, type the following:
setup /s /v"/qn REBOOT=ReallySuppress"
To perform a silent install and create a log file
Type the following:
setup /s /v"/qn /L f:\ia32\1testlog.txt"
The 1testlog.txt log file will be created at f:\ia32.
To perform a silent uninstall from any folder on the hard drive
msiexec /x "{26E1BFB0-E87E-4696-9F89-B467F01F81E5}" /qn
Notes:
The hexadecimal number above may differ from your current installer. Check the
Key name corresponding with the Broadcom Advanced Control Suite (BACS)
application in HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall for
the correct hexadecimal number.
After performing a silent uninstall, it is necessary to reboot the system before
reinstalling this installer. If a reboot is not performed, BASP will not install
correctly.
To perform a silent install by feature on IA32 platforms
Use ADDSOURCE to include any of the features listed below.
Note:CHM32 or CHM64 installs the BACS help file and must be included when
installing the BACS feature.
setup /s /v"/qn ADDSOURCE=BACSi32,CHM32,BASPi32,SNMPi32,CIMi32"
To perform a silent install by feature on AMD64/EM64T platforms
Type the following:
setup /s /v"/qn ADDSOURCE=BACSa64,CHMa64,BASPa64,SNMPa64"
To perform a silent install from within a batch file
To perform a silent install from within a batch file type the following and wait for the
install to complete before continuing with the next command line:

D-Link DXE-820T User Manual
start /wait setup /s /w /v/qn
3.1.2. Installing on a Linux System
The Broadcom Advanced Control Suite (BACS) software can be installed on a Linux
system using the Linux RPM package. This installation includes a BACS GUI and a CLI
client.
Before you begin:
Ensure that the Broadcom network adapter(s) is physically installed and the
appropriate device driver for the NICis is installed on the system that will be
managed by this utility.
Ensure that the CIM provider is installed properly on the system that will be
managed by this utility.
For managing iSCSI on Linux hosts, ensure that the open-iscsi and sg utilities are
installed on the Linux host.
To install BACS
1. Download the latest BACS management application RPM package.
2. Install the RPM package using the following command:
% rpm -i BACS-{version}.{arch}.rpm
To Use BACS
To use the GUI, on XWindow, double-click the BACS4 desktop icon, or access the
BACS program from the task bar under System Tools.
To use BACS CLI, refer to the file BACSCLI_Readme.txt provided with the release
files.
To remove BACS
To uninstall the RPM package, use the following command:
% rpm -e BACS
3.1.3. Managing Management Applications (Windows)
Modifying the Management Application
To modify the management applications:
In Control Panel, double-click Add or Remove Programs.
1. Click Broadcom Management Programs and then click Change.
2. Click Next to continue.
3. Click Modify to change program features.
4. Click Next to continue.
5. Click on an icon to change how a feature is installed.
6. Click Next.
7. Click Install.

D-Link DXE-820T User Manual
8. Click Finish to close the wizard.
9. Reboot your system to complete the modification of the management
applications.
Repairing Management Applications
To repair the management applications:
1. In Control Panel, double-click Add or Remove Programs.
2. Click Broadcom Management Programs, and then click Change.
3. Click Next to continue.
4. Click Repair to repair errors in installed applications.
5. Click Next to continue.
6. Click Install.
7. Click Finish to close the wizard.
Removing Management Applications
To remove all management applications:
1. In Control panel, double-click Add or Remove Programs.
2. Click Broadcom Management Programs, and then click Remove.
3. Reboot your system to complete the removal of management applications.
To remove the management application using the CLI:
Enter following command:
rpm -e BACS

D-Link DXE-820T User Manual
4. Advanced Teaming Concepts
The concept of grouping multiple physical devices to provide fault tolerance and load
balancing is not new. It has been around for years. Storage devices use RAID
technology to group individual hard drives. Switch ports can be grouped together
using technologies such as Cisco Gigabit EtherChannel, IEEE 802.3ad Link Aggregation,
Bay Network Multilink Trunking, and Extreme Network Load Sharing. Network
interfaces on servers can be grouped together into a team of physical ports called a
virtual adapter.
4.1. Network Addressing
To understand how teaming works, it is important to understand how node
communications work in an Ethernet network. This document is based on the
assumption that the reader is familiar with the basics of IP and Ethernet network
communications. The following information provides a high-level overview of the
concepts of network addressing used in an Ethernet network. Every Ethernet
network interface in a host platform, such as a computer system, requires a globally
unique Layer 2 address and at least one globally unique Layer 3 address. Layer 2 is
the Data Link Layer, and Layer 3 is the Network layer as defined in the OSI model. The
Layer 2 address is assigned to the hardware and is often referred to as the MAC
address or physical address. This address is pre-programmed at the factory and
stored in NVRAM on a network interface card or on the system motherboard for an
embedded LAN interface. The Layer 3 addresses are referred to as the protocol or
logical address assigned to the software stack. IP and IPX are examples of Layer 3
protocols. In addition, Layer 4 (Transport Layer) uses port numbers for each network
upper level protocol such as Telnet or FTP. These port numbers are used to
differentiate traffic flows across applications. Layer 4 protocols such as TCP or UDP
are most commonly used in today's networks. The combination of the IP address and
the TCP port number is called a socket.
Ethernet devices communicate with other Ethernet devices using the MAC address,
not the IP address. However, most applications work with a host name that is
translated to an IP address by a Naming Service such as WINS and DNS. Therefore, a
method of identifying the MAC address assigned to the IP address is required. The
Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) for an IP network provides this mechanism. For
IPX, the MAC address is part of the network address and ARP is not required. ARP is
implemented using an ARP Request and ARP Reply frame. ARP Requests are typically
sent to a broadcast address while the ARP Reply is typically sent as unicast traffic. A
unicast address corresponds to a single MAC address or a single IP address. A

D-Link DXE-820T User Manual
broadcast address is sent to all devices on a network.
4.2. Teaming and Network Addresses
A team of adapters function as a single virtual network interface and do not appear
any different to other network devices than a non-teamed adapter. A virtual network
adapter advertises a single Layer 2 and one or more Layer 3 addresses. When the
teaming driver initializes, it selects one MAC address from one of the physical
adapters that make up the team to be the Team MAC address. This address is
typically taken from the first adapter that gets initialized by the driver. When the
system hosting the team receives an ARP request, it selects one MAC address from
among the physical adapters in the team to use as the source MAC address in the
ARP Reply. In Windows operating systems, the IPCONFIG /all command shows the IP
and MAC address of the virtual adapter and not the individual physical adapters. The
protocol IP address is assigned to the virtual network interface and not to the
individual physical adapters.
For switch-independent teaming modes, all physical adapters that make up a virtual
adapter must use the unique MAC address assigned to them when transmitting data.
That is, the frames that are sent by each of the physical adapters in the team must
use a unique MAC address to be IEEE compliant. It is important to note that ARP
cache entries are not learned from received frames, but only from ARP requests and
ARP replies.
4.3. Description of Teaming Types
There are three methods for classifying the supported teaming types:
One is based on whether the switch port configuration must also match the
adapter teaming type.
The second is based on the functionality of the team, whether it supports load
balancing and failover or just failover.
The third is based on whether the Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP) is
used or not.
Table 2 shows a summary of the teaming types and their classification.
Table 2:
Available Teaming Types
Teaming Type Switch-Dep
endent
(Switch
must
support
specific
type of
Link
Aggregation
Control
Protocol
Support
Required on
the Switch
Load
Balancing
Failover

D-Link DXE-820T User Manual
team)
Smart Load Balancing
and Failover (with two to
eight load balance team
members)
v v
SLB (Auto-Fallback
Disable)
v V
Link Aggregation
(802.3ad)
v v v V
Generic Trunking
(FEC/GEC)/802.3ad-Draft
Static
v v v
4.3.1. Smart Load Balancing and Failover
The Smart Load Balancing™ and Failover type of team provides both load balancing
and failover when configured for load balancing, and only failover when configured
for fault tolerance. This type of team works with any Ethernet switch and requires no
trunking configuration on the switch. The team advertises multiple MAC addresses
and one or more IP addresses (when using secondary IP addresses). The team MAC
address is selected from the list of load balance members. When the system receives
an ARP request, the software-networking stack will always send an ARP Reply with
the team MAC address. To begin the load balancing process, the teaming driver will
modify this ARP Reply by changing the source MAC address to match one of the
physical adapters.
Smart Load Balancing enables both transmit and receive load balancing based on the
Layer 3/ Layer 4 IP address and TCP/UDP port number. In other words, the load
balancing is not done at a byte or frame level but on a TCP/UDP session basis. This
methodology is required to maintain in-order delivery of frames that belong to the
same socket conversation. Load balancing is supported on 2 to 8 ports. These ports
can include any combination of add-in adapters and LAN on Motherboard (LOM)
devices. Transmit load balancing is achieved by creating a hashing table using the
source and destination IP addresses and TCP/UDP port numbers. The same
combination of source and destination IP addresses and TCP/UDP port numbers will
generally yield the same hash index and therefore point to the same port in the team.
When a port is selected to carry all the frames of a given socket, the unique MAC
address of the physical adapter is included in the frame, and not the team MAC
address. This is required to comply with the IEEE 802.3 standard. If two adapters
transmit using the same MAC address, then a duplicate MAC address situation would

D-Link DXE-820T User Manual
occur that the switch could not handle.
Note: IPv6 addressed traffic will not be load balanced by SLB because ARP is not a
feature of IPv6.
Receive load balancing is achieved through an intermediate driver by sending
gratuitous ARPs on a client-by-client basis using the unicast address of each client as
the destination address of the ARP request (also known as a directed ARP). This is
considered client load balancing and not traffic load balancing. When the
intermediate driver detects a significant load imbalance between the physical
adapters in an SLB team, it will generate G-ARPs in an effort to redistribute incoming
frames. The intermediate driver (BASP) does not answer ARP requests; only the
software protocol stack provides the required ARP Reply. It is important to
understand that receive load balancing is a function of the number of clients that are
connecting to the system through the team interface.
SLB receive load balancing attempts to load balance incoming traffic for client
machines across physical ports in the team. It uses a modified gratuitous ARP to
advertise a different MAC address for the team IP Address in the sender physical and
protocol address. This G-ARP is unicast with the MAC and IP Address of a client
machine in the target physical and protocol address respectively. This causes the
target client to update its ARP cache with a new MAC address map to the team IP
address. G-ARPs are not broadcast because this would cause all clients to send their
traffic to the same port. As a result, the benefits achieved through client load
balancing would be eliminated, and could cause out-of-order frame delivery. This
receive load balancing scheme works as long as all clients and the teamed system are
on the same subnet or broadcast domain.
When the clients and the system are on different subnets, and incoming traffic has to
traverse a router, the received traffic destined for the system is not load balanced.
The physical adapter that the intermediate driver has selected to carry the IP flow
carries all of the traffic. When the router sends a frame to the team IP address, it
broadcasts an ARP request (if not in the ARP cache). The server software stack
generates an ARP reply with the team MAC address, but the intermediate driver
modifies the ARP reply and sends it over a particular physical adapter, establishing
the flow for that session.
The reason is that ARP is not a routable protocol. It does not have an IP header and
therefore, is not sent to the router or default gateway. ARP is only a local subnet
protocol. In addition, since the G-ARP is not a broadcast packet, the router will not
process it and will not update its own ARP cache.
The only way that the router would process an ARP that is intended for another
network device is if it has Proxy ARP enabled and the host has no default gateway.

D-Link DXE-820T User Manual
This is very rare and not recommended for most applications.
Transmit traffic through a router will be load balanced as transmit load balancing is
based on the source and destination IP address and TCP/UDP port number. Since
routers do not alter the source and destination IP address, the load balancing
algorithm works as intended.
Configuring routers for Hot Standby Routing Protocol (HSRP) does not allow for
receive load balancing to occur in the adapter team. In general, HSRP allows for two
routers to act as one router, advertising a virtual IP and virtual MAC address. One
physical router is the active interface while the other is standby. Although HSRP can
also load share nodes (using different default gateways on the host nodes) across
multiple routers in HSRP groups, it always points to the primary MAC address of the
team.
4.3.2. Generic Trunking
Generic Trunking is a switch-assisted teaming mode and requires configuring ports at
both ends of the link: server interfaces and switch ports. This is often referred to as
Cisco Fast EtherChannel or Gigabit EtherChannel. In addition, generic trunking
supports similar implementations by other switch OEMs such as Extreme Networks
Load Sharing and Bay Networks or IEEE 802.3ad Link Aggregation static mode. In this
mode, the team advertises one MAC Address and one IP Address when the protocol
stack responds to ARP Requests. In addition, each physical adapter in the team uses
the same team MAC address when transmitting frames. This is possible since the
switch at the other end of the link is aware of the teaming mode and will handle the
use of a single MAC address by every port in the team. The forwarding table in the
switch will reflect the trunk as a single virtual port.
In this teaming mode, the intermediate driver controls load balancing and failover for
outgoing traffic only, while incoming traffic is controlled by the switch firmware and
hardware. As is the case for Smart Load Balancing, the BASP intermediate driver uses
the IP/TCP/UDP source and destination addresses to load balance the transmit traffic
from the server. Most switches implement an XOR hashing of the source and
destination MAC address.
Note: Generic Trunking is not supported on iSCSI offload adapters.
4.3.3. Link Aggregation (IEEE 802.3ad LACP)
Link Aggregation is similar to Generic Trunking except that it uses the Link
Aggregation Control Protocol to negotiate the ports that will make up the team. LACP
must be enabled at both ends of the link for the team to be operational. If LACP is
not available at both ends of the link, 802.3ad provides a manual aggregation that